VYGOTSKY, MONTESSORI AND PIAGET, OH MY!

HOW WHAT THEY DID, INFLUENCES WHAT YOU DO!

Shared with you by Lisa Murphy, M.Ed.

www.ooeygooey.com (800) 477-7977

FRIEDRICH FROEBEL 1782-1852 (70)

 Lived in Germany  His mother died when he was an infant  Grew up playing in gardens, fell in love

with nature and natural environs  Became a teacher in Frankfurt  Froebel is credited with inventing Kinder-

garden at some point between 1837 and 1840

 Americans Frank Lloyd Wright and Buckminster Fuller were influenced by Froebel’s school of thought, and you can see his influence in both of their architectural designs.   

FROEBEL BELIEVED

 Hands-on learning was best  Children need to be active  Active and direct observation is the best

way to plan education  Children needed to be engaged in self

directed activities and the teacher was to serve as the guide

FROEBEL’S GOALS FOR HIS KINDERS:

  Physical activity (large motor)   Physical dexterity (fine motor)   Sensory awareness (observations)   Creative expression (songs, art, drama, dance)   Exploration of ideas and concepts (discussion)   Singing   Experience of being with others (social/emotional)   Satisfaction of the soul  

Nothing without joy!-Loris Malaguzzi !

FROEBEL’S GIFTS  Froebel established a series of playthings

(gifts) which provided children with educational experiences

 Until this time toys were for amusement and education occurred via books and direct instruction

 Froebel flipped this by using PLAY as the engine and the gifts as the fuel

 Froebel codified up to gift 7, the rest were numbered by colleagues after his death

 The building block gifts (2-6) were initially crafted by the Milton Bradley Co.

 Examples of the gifts as well as a history of blocks are provided on your extra handout

 http://www.froebelfoundation.org/philosophy.html to learn more about the philosophy and the gifts.

 http://www.froebelusa.org to learn more about their association & conferences

MARIA MONTESSORI 1870-1952 (82)   Montessori began her career as a medical student

with a specialty in pediatrics   She was the first woman to graduate from an Italian

medical school   She worked with children in asylums and realized

that the children did not have problems – their environments did!

  Came to be called “teacher” by her peers   Opened Casa Di Bambini to keep the children off the

streets in the slums of Rome (at the request of the government)

  No materials for children so she made them   Within 6 years of opening Casa Di Bambini in Rome

there were over 100 schools in the USA following a “Montessori” philosophy

  Maria left Italy for political reasons in the 1930s and she lived out her days in India, England and Holland

KEY MONTESSORI POINTS

  The notion of “child-sized” or “child-scaled” was nonexistent before Maria Montessori invented it

  Having the stuff does not make you “Montessori”   Control and establish the environment   The environment should be prepared, beautiful,

orderly and shall have lots of opportunity to engage the senses

  Children need real tools and accessible equipment   Children need free time to explore   Teachers need to prepare the space and then step

back and facilitate   Don’t pull the children away when they are engaged   OBERVE OBSERVE OBSERVE   The teacher should always be learning right with the

children. Is the space working? Not working? What can I do about it?

“the children are now working as if I do not exist” -Maria Montessori

“don’t worry, I will not die, I have too much to do.”!

-Maria Montessori as a child to her mother

Read More: The Absorbent Mind Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook The Secret of Childhood The Essential Montessori, Elizabeth Hainstock Basic Montessori, David Gettman

LEV VYGOTSKY 1896-1934 (38)

 Studied literature at University of Moscow  Usually associated with cognitive and

language development  Through observations noticed that within a

group of children at the same “level” there were some that learned with little help and some who needed more assistance

Vygotsky is often lost in the shadow of Jean Piaget. Vygotsky died after a long battle with TB. It is often thought that had he lived longer his contributions would have rivaled those of Piaget. However, because of impact of Tools of the Mind (Bedrova and Leong) we might see his influence had just been incubating!

TOOLS OF THE MIND (BEDROVA & LEONG)

 Mature play = increase in executive function (EF)

 Executive function:   Self regulation   Working memory   Cognitive functioning

SEVEN ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILLS: Focus and Self Control: Executive Function: paying

attention, remembering rules, exercising self-control Perspective Taking: More than empathy; figuring out

what other people are thinking; understanding their intentions

Communicating: More than language, speaking & writing; understanding how our communications will be understood by others

Making Connections: Figuring out what is the same, what is different; sorting into categories

Critical Thinking: Search for valid & reliable knowledge Taking on Challenges: Willing to take them on, instead

of avoiding or coping with them Self-Directed, Engaged Learning: Through learning we

realize our potential, it lasts a lifetime.

**As identified by Ellen Galinsky in her book, Mind in the Making

KEY VYGOTSKY POINTS

  The interaction between children and teachers and its vital role in advancing knowledge

  ZPD = the zone of proximal development. The difference between what a child can do on his/her own and what they can do with assistance (from either a peer or an adult)

  When this “assistance” is offered it is referred to as “scaffolding”

  Keen observation is at the core of effective and successful scaffolding. Scaffolding is NOT “pushing”

  Suggested to use props, real materials and loose parts in the environment

  Valued conversations and working together   Strong emphasis on observations   Believed learning takes place when children

play

RUDOLPH STEINER (WALDORF) 1861-1925 (64)

  Steiner was an Austrian philosopher and spiritual scientist who believed that we must awaken to our own inner nature and the spiritual realities of outer nature and the cosmos. He believed that the awareness of this relationship brings greater reverence for life.

  Clarification: although this is the theoretical basis of his “method” it is not taught to the students.

  There is a lot of myth around Waldorf

  So if his name is Steiner, why is the theory, style and philosophy referred to as “Waldorf”?

KEY COMPONENTS OF WALDORF

 Learning through doing  De-emphasis on “academics” in the early

grades  Strong focus on social skills  Children often learn to read from their own

writing   Ideally the same group stays together for

the first 8 years. Strong emphasis on the relationships between students/teachers

 Traditional “frills” are central to a Waldorf style: music, art, gardening, crafts, etc.

 Children are traditionally taught to knit, play the recorder and a stringed instrument

 Waldorf strongly discourages electronic media 

 Spiral curriculum: the same basic knowledge is introduced and experienced at varying levels of depth, each time becoming more complex and integrated.

 A noticeable rhythm to the day filled with order, beauty and harmony.

 An education of the HEART the HAND and the MIND

 Often seen more outside of USA because there is not the pressure of (what Piaget called) the “American Question” = our fixation on accelerating early academics.

REGGIO EMILIA The theory often referred to simply as “Reggio” is not a person, but a place: a town called Reggio Emilia, located in Northern Italy.

Reggio emerged after WWII when, as the story goes, Loris Malaguzzi rode his bicycle to the war-torn village of Villa Cella (outside of Reggio Emilia) because he heard they were celebrating liberation from Mussolini’s fascist regime by building a school out of rubble, bricks & rocks, and raising money by selling horses, ammunition & tanks left behind by German soldiers.

Malaguzzi went to Rome, took some child psych classes, then returned to Reggio Emilia to assist in running the school. He eventually guided the creation of more. He is considered the “father” of the Reggio movement.

The educational philosophy which came out of this town (in the late 1940’s!) has been influencing the international early childhood scene since the late 1980’s.

CAUTION NORTH AMERICANS! …we are often easily seduced by trappings that

appear to be essential cornerstones of a “philosophy.” We must take care. You don’t become Reggio by taking your clocks down, having an art room/workshop (atelier), buying a light table, using a photo documentation board orby draping crepe-like fabric from the ceiling. It really is a way of thinking. It is a WAY OF LIFE. It is truly an inspiration for all educators. Yet in its purest form it couldn’t work here. Why not? It is culturally, socially and community based. And simply stated, it’s not our culture.

YET the basic underpinnings originated in the USA.

Overheard at a conference: “We can’t be Reggio anymore because it violated a fire code…”

KEY REGGIO POINTS:  Make the learning visable  Small group work  Continuity – staying together for 3 years  Partnership (the community based

management of schools)  Relationship driven (parents, teachers,

children & community)  Documentation  Well-being and being “at ease” in the setting  Good taste, aesthetics  Culture (conscious of the cultural nature of

ideas and practices)

Key influencers:   Dewey   Bruner   Vygotsky   Froebel   Piaget

Thoughts from Lella Gandini’s interview with The American Journal of Play

You have to notice that she noticed.

JEAN PIAGET 1869-1980 (84)  Piaget had a PhD in biology & psychology.  After graduation he taught at a school for boys

in Paris that was run by Alfred Binet, the developer of the Binet intelligence test.

 While scoring tests, Piaget noticed consistent similarities in the wrong answers children were giving at certain ages. This was his EUREKA! He wondered, “What thought process are they using???”

 Conservation Tests: the ability to keep in mind what stays the same and what changes in an object after it has changed aesthetically. One who can conserve is able to reverse the transformation mentally.

SIDEBAR: You can watch conservation task videos on YouTube

 Piaget is the USA’s primary preschool influence

PIAGET’S KEY POINTS

 Free Play  Real experiences  Children allowed to do things for

themselves  Children learn when curiosity is satisfied  The teacher’s job is to nurture inquiry  Play is important for learning  Teachers need to provide problem solving

challenges, not just give out information

PIAGET (CONTINUED)

 Curiosity and wonder are key ingredients to learning – cannot “make” them learn

 Children build knowledge through what they do and experience

 Stages of Cog Dev that impact our age group:   Sensorimotor 0-18 months

  Object permanence   Separation anxiety

  Preoperational thought 18 mos – 6 years   Literal – ness   Over generalizations

 Current questioning of the scientific validity of his work

JOHN DEWEY 1859-1952 (93)

 Started as a philosopher (Chicago based for the major part of his work)

 He is the American educator who influenced our field the most

 Became friends with student Alice Chipman, who was conducting her own research on how social problems influenced education

 Dewey was interested in her research, they eventually married

 Dewey was leading the “Progressive” educational movement while Piaget was in Switzerland and Montessori in Italy. They were all influencing the same time frame

DEWEY’S KEY POINTS:

 Children learn by doing. This was a RADICAL idea when he proposed it

 Children need real experiences  Experiences should encourage both

experimentation and independent thinking  Education and life are interrelated – they

cannot be separated!  Child centered does not = CHAOS!

DEWEY (CONTINUED)

 Education must be interactive  School MUST involve the child’s social

world in order to be relevant  Curriculum must be based on interests and

observations  To be meaningful it must be more than just

“fun”  Teachers MUST be able to articulate their

intention and purpose

WHO ELSE?  Magda Gerber: http://www.rie.org/

  RIE: resources for infant educarers

 Emmi Pikler: Respect! http://pikler.org/PiklerPractices.html

 Sara Smilansky: Kinds of Play: functional, constructive, dramatic/pretend, & games with rules.

 Abraham Maslow: Hierarchy of Needs  Erik Erickson: _______ vs. _________  David Elkind: The Power of Play (AOR)  Howard Gardner: Multiple Intelligences  Maxine Greene: NYU philosophy of education  Who would YOU add???

What’s the point? None of it is new!!!

HAVE THEY REACHED THE AGE OF REASON? (AOR)

 AOR required before formal schooling! RULES!   Math has rules, grammar has rules, science has rules, etc.

must be able to hold these rules in your head!

  Indicators that a child has NOT yet entered the AOR:   Still very literal in thought   Younger than 6/7   Still has baby teeth   Cannot draw or copy a diamond:

  Drawing vectors means that a line can go in two directions; down/up and across/over.

  Prefers one dimensional stories, the step-mother is bad, the sister is good, the dog is naughty, etc.   Winnie The Pooh = entering AOR

  Doesn’t see that one thing can be 2 things at same time: the lady can be a mom and a teacher! Supermarket Syndrome